Chapter 1446 You Are Just Pretending

Li Mu suddenly said "You idiot", calling Elon Musk stupid.

He didn't expect that Li Mu would respond and criticize him so fiercely. Every word in Li Mu's mouth was like a cannonball bombarding his self-confidence. He thought that his self-confidence was strong enough, but until Li Mu's words It was only after the cannonball exploded that he realized how vulnerable his self-confidence was.

Li Mu did not immediately explain to Elon Musk the reason why he scolded him, but fell into contemplation.

Through Elon Musk's overall plan for building a car, Li Mu understands a truth, that is: a great person is by no means great everywhere. The more great a person is in certain fields, the easier it is Some areas make extremely stupid mistakes.

A hundred years ago, Ford knew that automobile manufacturing should form a highly versatile assembly line operation. The assembly line is not the focus here. The real focus is strong versatility, but Elon Musk does not know it.

Take Zippo as an example. If Zippo builds a production line for each lighter, it is also an assembly line operation, but is this even advanced?

Due to the poor versatility of this kind of assembly line, as long as a certain product cannot be sold in the market, the production line supporting it will be scrapped. If Zippo adopts this kind of assembly line operation, it will not be long before going bankrupt.

The reason is that the replacement of products is fast, but the replacement of technology is slow!

There are so many styles of Zippo lighters, some of which cannot be sold after half a year, but the design structure, manufacturing process and technology of Zippo lighters will not undergo major changes for decades, and will only develop slowly and steadily, so In this case, a production line with strong versatility becomes the key.

For the same production line, if this style is popular in the market, it will be produced at full speed. When another type is popular in the market, it will be produced at full speed immediately. The product iterates rapidly, but it will not affect the platform. This is the key to development.

However, Elon Musk can think of building new energy vehicles, but he can't think of developing a universal production platform for his new energy vehicle plan.

Moreover, Elon Musk didn't even consider the importance of product iteration, only one model at each stage? This idea is too simple in the field of automobile manufacturing, and it does not conform to the basic logic of modern industry.

Li Mu recalled carefully, Tesla only had one Roadster in four years from 2008 to 2012;

In the three years from 2012 to 2015, there was only one Model-S;

Two cars in seven years are indeed a bit funny,

Elon Musk should have also realized his simplicity at that time, so he slightly accelerated the launch of new models, launched Model-X in 2015, and launched Model-3 in 2016. Tesla has developed for more than ten years. In total, these four models were built.

And the most embarrassing thing is that although the Model-3 has received huge orders, it has been unable to increase the delivery speed due to a serious shortage of production capacity. At that time, Tesla began to desperately increase production capacity and strive to achieve platformization, and it was too late.

It seems that Elon Musk's biggest problem is not that he didn't build his own car manufacturing foundation at the beginning, but that he didn't sort out his thinking mode at all.

Half a day later, Li Mu picked up his Zippo, lit a cigarette, took a few puffs, and while playing with the Zippo in his hand, he said to Elon Musk, "Elon, your biggest problem is your overconfidence. So much so that it's too stupid."

After finishing speaking, Li Mu said again: "There is no businessman who can use one product to beat the world's invincible opponents. God can't do it. Otherwise, there should be one copy of the Bible for everyone in the world."

Elon Musk wanted to explain for himself, he said: "Mr. Li, I don't think we should have such a big vision at the beginning. We created Tesla, not to let everyone in the world buy a Tesla. Pull, we can't do it, so I think we should build an electric sports car with excellent performance to let the world realize the infinite potential of electric cars, which is very sure to do, after all, the team we acquired The battery and motor have been used to get a car going from 0-60 mph in under four seconds."

Li Mu shook his head slightly and said, "Take a step back, God also knows that he can't make everyone in the world his followers, but he still sent his missionaries to every corner of the world, Elon, Do you know what the truth is in this?"

Elon Musk looked at Li Mu with a dazed look on his face. Since he was completely denied by Li Mu, his whole state was a little dazed, and he was already confused in his heart.

Seeing that he didn't respond, Li Mu continued: "The truth here is that although you can't make everyone your user, you still have to work hard in this direction, no matter whether you can conquer the world or not, You must first have the heart to conquer the world, otherwise, your Tesla will not even be able to get out of Silicon Valley!”

Elon Musk nodded: "I see what you mean, Mr. Li."

Li Mu said flatly, "No, you didn't."

After that, Li Mu added: "I mean, you must not only have the heart to conquer the world, but also have different means of conquering the world. You want to conquer the world with one model, and you want to conquer the world with a single weapon. What's the difference? The Mongolian cavalry also failed to conquer Japan, let alone Africa, Australia and the Americas, so you have to have multiple models to form a multi-dimensional mix, just like the trinity of sea, land and air."

Elon Musk put his left hand under his nose and frowned. After thinking for a while, he asked Li Mu, "Mr. Li, this is the key to your emphasis on platformization, right?"

Li Mu nodded: "Tesla needs a platform with strong versatility, or even more than one platform. For example, we need a platform suitable for long-wheelbase, four-wheel-drive models, which can be used to produce medium and large high-end sedans. , can also be used to produce mid-to-large high-end SUVs and mid-to-large high-end MPVs, in addition to this, we may also need a platform for mid-wheelbase, front-wheel drive and rear-drive models, which can be used to produce our mid-range sedans , mid-range SUVs, even performance cars.”

Having said this, Li Mu added: "Learn from Volkswagen, if Volkswagen only produced one model, it would have died, so it has a series of similar models, which are nothing more than elongated, shortened, and raised. It’s flattened, but it’s only through multi-dimensional models that Volkswagen can ensure its own product coverage.”

Elon Musk muttered to himself: "This also means that we have to develop multiple models..."

Li Mu said helplessly: "You still don't understand the key to platformization. Real car manufacturers are not researching models, but core components and platforms. For example, we have developed battery packs and motors with excellent performance. We use the best battery pack and the best motor to compose our high-end products, and then castrate the cost and performance of the battery pack and motor down by 30% to form our mid-end products. With our low-end products, you can see how many engines and gearboxes Volkswagen has, and most of the models use the same engine, the difference is only the difference in tuning and the level of matching assemblies."

Having said that, Li Mu added: "I will give you a more specific example. If we develop a 100 kWh battery pack and a single motor with a power of 200 kW, then we will use a 100 kWh battery pack. , with two 200-kilowatt motors, and a chassis with a long wheelbase, so we have a high-end model, which we named Tesla S;

Then we scaled down the battery pack to 70 kWh, paired it with two 120 kW motors and a chassis with a mid-wheelbase, and we had a mid-range model, which we named Tesla E;

On the basis of Tesla S, we raise the height of the chassis and the height of the vehicle, and we have a high-end SUV model, which we named Tesla X;

On the basis of Tesla E, we use a 100 kWh battery pack, with two 200 kW motors, and choose rear-drive mode, we have a sports model, we can name it Tesla GT ;

If there is a market demand, we will put a 1,000-kilowatt-hour battery pack into the chassis of the bus, paired with two 200-kilowatt motors, and we will have a new energy passenger vehicle..."

Only then did Elon Musk understand why Li Mu called himself an idiot. He embarrassedly said to Li Mu, "Mr. Li, I understand what you mean, it's because my thinking mode is too narrow. Demand is just like the demand for Internet products. YY product can cover almost all users. Tesla can be as popular in the world as YY if it is perfect, but I have overlooked one point, car manufacturing and Internet products. The difference is that most Internet products are free, and the automotive industry needs to fully consider the spending power of users of different classes, but I just want to make one."

Li Mu nodded and said, "What I said just now is based on the laws of modern industry. I am not satisfied with some of your points. Apart from that, I am also a little disappointed."

Elon Musk hurriedly asked him: "Mr. Li, if there is anything you are not satisfied with, please don't be polite and point it out directly."

Li Mu nodded and said, "I support you in doing new energy, not to show our differences, nor to subvert the traditional auto industry, but to convey the advantages of new energy to the world through successful cases of new energy: cheap , clean, environmentally friendly and renewable, let the public realize the advantages of clean energy, so as to gradually abandon traditional cars, reduce pollution and emissions.”

Speaking of this, Li Mu changed his words and said, "But, I just found out that you don't really think so in your essence. Although you want to make a new energy vehicle, all you think about is to build an awesome car. New energy vehicles, what you want is to use new energy to make the car run faster, what you want is to shock the whole world for you, let the world's elites flock to you, and let people all over the world give a thumbs up to Egypt. Ron Musk built a super car that runs on batteries, but what is the universal value that really benefits society other than personal reputation? To put it nasty, you're just pretending."

"If according to your idea, the unit price of the new energy vehicle you built is probably more than 100,000 US dollars. Such an expensive price can only be reduced to a plaything for a few rich people, then we have worked hard to develop new energy vehicles for the purpose of What? Is it to tell the world that new energy is something only rich people can play, and has nothing to do with ordinary people?"